An enlightening experience
G.S. PAUL
|
A workshop on Kuchipudi sought to highlight the salient features of the dance form.
|
Photo: K.K. Najeeb
LECTURE-DEMONSTRATION: Manju Bhargavi explains the fundamental facets of Kuchipudi to participants of the workshop.
A workshop on Kuchipudi led by actor and danseuse Manju Bhargavi, concluded in Thrissur last week. The 10-day workshop, organised by Navaneetham Cultural Trust, was attended by 30 students.
Manju Bhargavi pointed out that the adavus of each dance form was unique to it. For the same reason, she started the workshop by teaching the basic adavus of Kuchipudi. As all the varieties of adavus could not be introduced for want of time, only a few like `Kuppi adavu,' `Kathira naattu,' `pakka naattu' and `jara adavu' were practised by the students.
As the couple of items taught embraced these varieties, the students found it easy to identify them. Being a dance form that lays great emphasis on talas, she took them through a course of the basic jathis and the five jaathis, namely chaturasra, misra, khanda, misra and sankirna. She spoke extensively on the traditional `margam' (repertoire) of Kuchipudi, which was an enlightening experience to the students.
Traditional margam
A recital opened with `Poorva rangam,' in which the dancer paid obeisance to the gods.
This was followed by `jatiswaram' and `Krishna sabdam.' The much-sought after `tarangam,' in which the plate and pot, appeared came next. `Pravesa daruvus' performed thereafter served to introduce characters like Sathyabhama, Rugmini, Usha and the like.
The performance usually concluded with a tillana after a javali. It was customary to include kirtanas of Tyagaraja, Annamacharya and Purandaradasa and `Dasavathara' too in the recital. The danseuse took pains to drive home the essential difference in the vaachika abhinaya followed in Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam.
While Bharatanatyam involved `padaartha' (word) abhinaya, Kuchipudi is anchored on `vaakya' (sentence) abhinaya. It was imperative that the dancer render the songs during the performance and the lip movements be distinctly visible to the audience.
She recalled how her guru Vempati Chinna Sathyama had told her that the Kuchipudi dancer got transformed into the character during a performance. So vaachika abhinaya was a must on the part of the dancer notwithstanding the playback music.
The performance by the students on the last day included Poorvarangam, jathiswaram and Krishna sabdam. Manju performed `Narayaneeyam' in ragamalika, `Dasavatharam' in Mohanam and an Annamacharya composition in Abheri.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
